South Korea to extend electric-car subsidy to long-range vehicles too

South Korea currently offers electric-car subsidies, but only to shorter-range vehicles.

This somewhat unusual provision was put in place in 2012, the government says, to encourage sales of electric cars with convenient charging times.

Under the current rule, electric cars that can fully charge in under 10 hours on standard household current receive up to 22 million won ($18,328) in subsidies—but vehicles that take longer than that receive nothing.

Meanwhile, there are no plans to sell the Chevrolet Bolt EV in South Korea at launch, or a concrete timeline for the start of sales in the country.

That could be somewhat awkward, considering that local firm LG did a considerable amount of development work on the car—and its predecessor, the Spark EV, was built and sold in South Korea.

LG provided not only battery cells, but other major components like the electric drive motor, onboard charger, and the infotainment system of the Bolt EV, which GM says allowed the company to shorten the development time of its long-range electric model.